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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26957458">And Into The Woods I Go</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Song_of_Quill_and_Feather/pseuds/A_Song_of_Quill_and_Feather'>A_Song_of_Quill_and_Feather</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Tragedy, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:08:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,910</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26957458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Song_of_Quill_and_Feather/pseuds/A_Song_of_Quill_and_Feather</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cadence Hearthorn doesn't truly understand her relationship with Sirius Black. <br/>Her relationship with Regulus is quite clear to her, they've been inseparable in Slytherin since their first year. But Sirius Black has confounded Cadence since the summer before fourth year, and it seems to be a mutual feeling after he wakes her from a dream of one of his best friends deepest secrets.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Regulus Black &amp; Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cadence Hearthorn always knew how her end would come about.</p>
<p>Not because she's a seer and saw a prophecy of it. Her gifts don't work that way.</p>
<p>No, she always knew how her end would come because it had been her greatest fear for so very long. And that always seems to be how it goes, especially in times of peril and war.</p>
<p>One will find that their end is exactly what they always feared it to be.</p>
<p>Whether that be locked away with guilt and truth and loss heavy over you. Or hiding from the sins you lost yourself to. Or dead for those you love and leaving them behind to face the future without you. Or isolated and alone after losing all you believed you had in the world. Or sacrificing your life to bring about the end of another.</p>
<p>Or, in the case of Cadence, walking deeper into the very fear that struck her so long ago.</p>
<p>Walking with grief and guilt driving each step forward. Ignoring every bit of preservation that had before that point saved her from this end, and instead throwing herself at it even as what bit of her that still held to its preservation screamed for her to <em>turn back.</em></p>
<p>Until her path was gone and there was no way back.</p>
<p>Until all there was was the end, and it was exactly what she had always feared it to be.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> <strong>Cadence</strong> </em>
</p><p>Once, when Cadence was a little girl no more than 8 or 9, she fell asleep in the meadow behind her families estate. Laid out amongst the wildflowers and with the sun shining warmly down upon her she could hear the sound of her brother's laughter where he played by the pond with his friends, thus it all made up the perfect scene to rest her eyes and drift away to sleep.</p><p>And then she woke. Though it was a strange sort of waking.</p><p>She woke, far from where she'd fallen asleep. She could still, if she focused, just barely hear her brother and his friends laughing as they threw water at each other. But she was no longer laid out in the meadow. Instead she was stood, on a seemingly well-worn path in a dark forest, fog clinging at the edges of the trees, leaving only around her clear.</p><p>She felt, in that moment, both at home and entirely lost.</p><p>She walked, trying to follow the distant noise of her brother, and eventually her eyes opened once more and she was staring up at the blue sky that she'd fallen asleep to in the first place.</p><p>Curiosity certainly got the better of her, as it often did at that age. For a few days later she tried to replicate that experience, and when she succeeded in waking in the forest she instead walked away from her brother's voice.</p><p>She felt she'd only walked a few minutes, and then suddenly the path was less worn and the trees closer to her. The fog was thicker as well, still not yet clinging to her like it did the trees, but far closer. And ahead of her, a woman turned and looked at her with wide-eyed alarm.</p><p>"Where are we?" Cadence had inquired, figuring since the woman was an adult that she'd have a better clue of it.</p><p>"The forest," was all she answered before moving closer to Cadence and peering over her shoulder a second. "You should go back, if you stay too long you'll get lost."</p><p>"I'm already lost though, I don't know where I am or how I got here."</p><p>And that, to Cadence seemed the very definition of lost.</p><p>But the woman shook her head at Cadence though her smile was kind and reassuring. "You're wandering, not lost. Trust me, I know lost very well." Cadence narrowed her eyes at the woman. She was older, likely her twenties or so, and dressed oddly for what Cadence understood of fashion. And, on top of that, her accent was American. Cadence hadn't met an American before.</p><p>"Are you lost?" She inquires.</p><p>"Yes, and for some time I believe. Though it's hard to tell here." The woman had turned Cadence around but paused. "Do you know which way you came?"</p><p>"Not really," the forest all looked the same. She remembers a trick her brother had told her for when they wandered the forest near their home, which was less spooky looking than this one, to look for landmarks. But so far in her walk the only thing that stood out was the woman before her. "But I can hear my brother, he and his friends are playing."</p><p>"Follow that sound then."</p><p>"Who are you?" Cadence asks, though she does so while also doing as she was told, the woman walking along with her as she follows the sound of her brother shouting and laughing. "And what is this? How did we get here?"</p><p>"Lot's of questions," the woman laughed, her voice soft and musical almost. "Well, my name is Winifred, but most just call me Winnie." She glances about the forest, her gaze carefully scanning as though searching for something. Cadence had looked as well, but hadn't known what to look for. "And like I said, this is the forest. It's a bit of a muddle to explain. But it's a place that souls go, between time and all that."</p><p>"Souls?"</p><p>"Lost ones, wandering ones, and the ones of witches and wizards like us." Winnie states, "But it's not a place to linger if you can find the way home."</p><p>"Wait, all witches and wizards come here?" She'd never heard of this. She knew of the Forbidden Forest, outside Hogwarts, but that didn't seem quite the same.</p><p>"No, witches like us." Winnie smiles again. "Seers, with the special gift of traveling beyond themselves to look at moments in time. This place is sort of like the space between it all. But it's also it's own place too, and like I said not a place for those like us to linger."</p><p>"Because we'll get lost?" Cadence guesses.</p><p>Winnie nods, and smiles still though Cadence does now spot a hint of sadness to it. "Yes. If you're here too long you'll lose the way back."</p><p>"But I can follow my brothers voice."</p><p>"Well right now you can, since it's not been too long. But if you stay, or go deeper, you might not be able to orient yourself that way. The path's like to muddle themselves all up, so it's nearly impossible to just follow the same way out that you came in on. Time works different too, since it's kind of outside of time."</p><p>"How do you know all this?"</p><p>"We share secrets here, us lost and wandering about. If, of course, we manage run into each other." Winnie shrugs, "and well I had a teacher back at Ilvermorny who knew about it, she wasn't like us but she had an ancestor who was who had written about it. When we found out what I was, well, she let me read it. So it's sort of a collection of knowledge from that and all my time here."</p><p>Winnie stops and glances once more to the denser trees, "another thing, and another reason not to linger…" Cadence followed her gaze but found trouble in spotting whatever had paled Winnie so. "Dementors, they hunt about these parts, so run on to your brother okay?"</p><p>"What about you?"</p><p>"Well," Winnie turned to walk deeper in the forest the opposite way from where she'd stared with anxiety. "I've made it this long, go quick now." And then she herself was running into the woods and Cadence was left alone once more after the fog had obscured Winnie entirely.</p><p>Cadence lingered just a second, looking back the way that Winnie had stared. Looking hard, straining to see what it was that had spooked Winnie.</p><p>With a chill running through her entire being she had spotted the dark cloak floating amongst the trees and without another thought in her she bolted in the direction of her brother's laughter until her eyes opened to the brilliant warmth of the sun even as she still felt the chill to her bones that the creature had sowed within her in just that small glance.</p><p>Since that meeting with Winifred, Cadence had had more odd dreams. Or perhaps, she's considered, she finally saw her dreams for what they were.</p><p>Moments in time that she wandered and looked into. She did her own research, reading all she could on seers and this particular branch off. She found herself intrigued with this little ability, until of course she was ten and once again found herself in that vast forest.</p><p>Somehow, despite being older and less prone to fright, it had scared her far more. Perhaps because she knew then what it was, and what lurked within.</p><p>She'd looked up Dementors in her research, and asked her parents and grandmother about them. She'd read about the Dementor's kiss, and drew the conclusion that they liked that forest because of what Winnie said about it being a place souls went.</p><p>It was a hunting ground for them, a place where they didn't have to drag the soul out of a body but instead could find it already ready to be swallowed.</p><p>Thus, when she fell asleep in her families study one day after reading all about different divination techniques she'd felt the chill immediately upon finding herself in the forest.</p><p>And she didn't have her brother laughing to find her way out. Which scared her all the more.</p><p>To this day she believes it was sheer luck that led her out after hours of wandering trying to will herself awake. It had terrified her, wandering amongst the dark ever-climbing trees and cold fog seeping closer and closer to her.</p><p>And the shapes, that more than once she had spotted through the tree-lines, dark and haunting and searching for one such as her.</p><p>She worked very hard from that point on not to fall asleep unprepared. She set up a record player in her room and set it to play all night so if she ended up there in the night she could follow it out. And when she arrived at Hogwarts, the first Hearthorn in generations to do so, she set to work developing a sleeping potion that would give her both dreamless nights and bind her soul to her body so it would not go wandering.</p><p>Her interest in divination left with her new fear of getting lost there, and thus she pushed the knowledge of her ability away. It didn't matter much to do so, that sort of skill would benefit her little amongst her peers.</p><p>If anything most would find it as some way to look down upon her further, a thing she could not risk in the slightest. It was her duty to her family to prove the Hearthorn name was still of good standing, and in a house such as Slytherin even the slightest bit of weakness would be torn apart.</p><p>So she shoved it away, the only person knowing of it to be Regulus who had woken her one fateful day in the library after she'd fallen asleep with her potion notes and proceeded to panic at her act of carelessness. He'd helped her with the rest of the potion recipe, and was the one person she trusted with the truth of herself entirely and thus was always the one to be there when she slipped up and fell into a dream that was no dream.</p><p>It was always like that with them, both aching to prove themselves. Regulus as the perfect Black son unlike his ever rebellious brother. And her, the first of Hearthorn blood to not be born a squib in three generations. They helped each other in these regards, while also being the only person the other did not worry about those pressures with.</p><p>Which was why she was very happy the summer before her fourth year to spend a whole month and half at the Black residence.</p><p>Well, mostly happy, as residing at Grimmauld Place meant residing with Sirius Black. Who, for the most part up to this point, Cadence had ignored for the sake of Regulus. The boy was a year older than them, and yet seemed a year stupider for it. Nearly always in detention, and almost always either targeting those in house Slytherin with his and his friends pranks or snogging some poor random witch if rumors were to be believed.</p><p>He seemed to think equally of her, not paying her much mind except for where it regarded Regulus. Which meant that he viewed her as he viewed his family— with disdain.</p><p>She had, before this point, assumed that Regulus was exaggerating a bit whenever he'd told her of his brother and mother's constant screaming matches during breaks. As well as his brother's overt rebellion at home. But within a week of her stay she was privy to one such argument, and also had in passing when his door happened to be open spotted the red and gold banners of House Gryffindor stuck upon all his walls.</p><p>She refused though to let it get in her way in the slightest. And, thankfully, they seemed content to avoid each other nearly entirely during her stay. The few times for the first weeks of her stay that either had spoken to each other had been when Regulus was there and the brothers were throwing thinly, or in Sirius's case rather clear, barbs at each other.</p><p>She expected it to be that way the rest of her stay as well.</p><p>Until, of course, she fell asleep in the Black's library alone while reading.</p><p>Regulus had joined his father on some trip for the weekend, thus he wasn't there to keep her from dozing without her potion. It had been the simplest of mistakes on her part, as often was the case. She was laying out upon a settee amongst the shelves, with a book on her lap she'd read for hours with the ever-burning candle next to her not indicating the passage of time and thus she hardly knew when it was well past time for sleep.</p><p>Until, of course, she opened her eyes and found herself somewhere entirely elsewhere.</p><p>It was a dark space, with the only light coming from a hanging light upon the ceiling. It seemed, to her at least, to be some sort of cellar. She stood, alone at the moment in the space, and tried to orient herself towards home. Grateful that at least it was not the forest.</p><p>And then there was a sound, a strangled sort of crying noise that sounded so very painful. Her gaze turned to it and found in a corner a familiar, if only in passing, face.</p><p>A pale face scrunched in tension with light brown hair hanging limply from sweat about it. He was curled about himself. She watched, all thought of leaving pushed aside as she stared with confusion as Remus Lupin made another strangled sort of scream before seeming to contort in a strange sort of way.</p><p>Cadence stumbles away hitting the wall behind her, she knows she has little reason to worry in the logical sense. He can't see her, or hear her, and won't ever know she was here. But still, fear grips her and she can't help it. She'd read on this once, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she knows even before the transformation has finished exactly what Remus Lupin is.</p><p>"Cadence?" She blinks, and then shoots up from where she'd been laying on the settee her heart racing as she squeezes her eyes shut at the last thing she'd seen, a creature snapping and clawing at itself in anger.</p><p>A weight leaves her shoulder and when she opens her eyes she looks and sees Sirius stood there in the candlelight, his hands raised at her abrupt awakening. She blinks his direction and wonders, <em>does he know?</em> Remus was one of his best friends, she remembers overhearing just this morning him and his mother arguing over him going to visit Remus and James Potter.</p><p>And, in a moment of sleep and panic induced loss of control, she can't help but blurt out "Remus Lupin is a werewolf."</p><p>And Sirius Black —who had never looked at her with anything more than disdain for the fellow Slytherin best friend of his brother— looks to her after a split second of surprise with a far harder edge to his gaze that tells her that he did indeed know and will not hesitate to hex her into silence.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hi! Thank you so much for reading!</p><p>This fic is very much going to be a very self-indulgent thing that (fair warning) does not end particularly happy. Just figure a warning for that is good before we get too far. There will still be happy things (especially in the first half) but this is the fic that I'm letting myself go pretty angsty with.</p><p>Anyhow, thank you again for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. I Don't Tell, You Don't Tell</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong> <em>Sirius</em> </strong>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Bloody hell.</em>
</p>
<p>That was the only thought to Sirius's mind when Cadence Hearthorn blurted out the one secret he and his friends had worked hard to keep from the major populace of Hogwarts, especially where it concerned the populace that lived down in the dungeons.</p>
<p>And now Reggies bloody best mate who is by all appearances as insufferably swallowing the pureblood rhetoric as them all has figured it out.</p>
<p>Sirius supposes he has two things ahead, finding out how, and ensuring she doesn't say a damn word of it to anyone. Even Regulus.</p>
<p>"What are you on about?" He figures it's worth trying denial first.</p>
<p>"You know…" she shakes her head, blinking some of the sleep that she'd been woken from away from her eyes as she turns and sits straighter to face him. "You know what he is."</p>
<p>He narrows his own eyes on her, and forces out, "what he is is none of your business." He grips his wand tight at his side and her eyes flick to him.</p>
<p>"What? Are you going hex me?" She asks incredulously with a tone that says she doesn't believe he will.</p>
<p>It, in a way, poses a challenge before him. As if he gets caught doing magic he'll lose his one escape from the insufferable hell that is Grimmauld and his family. So he stays the wish to do exactly as she inquires.</p>
<p>Instead he focuses on how she's learned this bit of information, and there is one glaring possibility before him. "You read my bloody letters, didn't you?"</p>
<p>She blinks again at him, but he doesn't miss the little flickering twist to her mouth that reminds him of Regulus when he's being clever. "Well that would be a mistake on your part, writing something like that in a letter." He glowers further to her, more because she's got some semblance of a point, but he'd never had his letters read before. He sends them through muggle means to avoid his mother reading them before the owl can take them. "But no, I did not read your letters. Why would I care to read your letters?"</p>
<p>"Regulus or one of your fanatical Slytherin friends put you to it. Someone trying to get a one up on me and my friends. Hell maybe Snivellus asked it of you, I don't know." Sirius shakes his head in frustration. "Look, the fact is that that is the only way you could have known."</p>
<p>"I saw it." She crosses her arms, and now he notes though she hides it well that she looks vaguely discomforted. Off kilter almost. "I didn't mean to see it, but I did."</p>
<p>"You <em>saw</em> it?" He inquires, "how? Also it's been over a month since school ended, and <em>now</em> you bring it up with me?"</p>
<p>"I didn't see it at school," she shakes her head, huffing out a short breath before looking firmly his way. "I saw it just then, before you woke me up, in my sleep."</p>
<p>He almost laughs, a small huff of the beginning escapes sharp and short. "You're basing this accusation towards my mate off of a bloody dream?"</p>
<p>If so, then he fucked it up by confirming just what she accused.</p>
<p>"It's not so simple as a dream." She shifts again, a small sign of discomfort. "I fell asleep on accident, without my potion. When that happens I… well I see things that have happened or are happening or even sometimes will happen, thought that's rarer."</p>
<p>"Like a seer?"</p>
<p>"Yes." She grits the word out, like it's something she hates about herself.</p>
<p>It makes him eye her more carefully. "But that's… I mean if you're telling the truth that's a bloody gift. I mean to be able to just look in at anything you want."</p>
<p>"It's not so fun as that sounds."</p>
<p>"It seems useful is all."</p>
<p>"I'm sure it would be," she sighs, "if it wasn't also dangerous."</p>
<p>"So," he moves and sits beside her, feeling a bit less on defense now that he sees how uncomfortable she is with learning of Remus. "You just, saw him in your dream?"</p>
<p>"It's a full moon tonight, right?" she asks, and he nods. He's kept track of the moon's cycle since they all found out about Remus in second year. "Then, yeah, it was a small cellar I think, and he was in there." She looks pale in the candlelight, and the slightest bit afraid. "He looked in pain, and then…"</p>
<p>"It's not a pretty transformation," Sirius shrugs, tapping his wand against his leg as he thinks. "If you tell anyone I'll curse you so severely you'll wish you were dead." His voice is cold as he says it, in a way that unsettlingly reminds him of his mother. But he means it, he'll do anything for any of the marauders, and Remus often seems to be the one most in need of that sort of protecting with the secrets he holds.</p>
<p>"I'm not…" she shakes her head, "I wouldn't do that. I was alarmed and shocked when you woke me, it's not a smooth sort of wake up like normal sleep. More like waking from a nightmare, which I mean adding the fact I saw a teenage boy turn into a monster—"</p>
<p>"He's not a monster," Sirius snaps.</p>
<p>"Regardless," she rolls her eyes, "you have nothing to worry about." He nods, not sure how much he trusts her but knowing he has little choice unless he wants to explain to Regulus that he cursed his best mate. "But," she starts and he looks again to her, "you can't tell anyone about me either."</p>
<p>"Seems too interesting not to share."</p>
<p>"So does the fact that there is a werewolf amongst the student body at Hogwarts." She replies smooth and cold. Her gaze sharp where it meets his own and he can't help but narrow his eyes in return.</p>
<p>"I don't tell, and you don't tell."</p>
<p>"Simple as that." She states, still cold.</p>
<p>He sighs, and rolls his eyes remembering again why he doesn't like Slytherins. So dour and all eye for an eye. "Fine." He waves a dismissing hand before standing, he glances about the library before peering down at her a second, "well best go off to bed, and do try to not spy on any of my friends secrets from now on."</p>
<p>"I assure you I have little interest in you or your friends, let alone your secrets." She responds, standing herself and grabbing the book that had been in her lap. "Good night." She states clearly before heading back through the stacks towards the door out to the hall.</p>
<p>He watches after her a few moments before blowing out the candle and leaving the space in darkness.</p>
<hr/>
<p>He sat out on the Potters lawn in the sun and felt the first bit of peace this whole summer. He'd managed to sneak off and get his way here the other day to James's delight and now with Remus and Peter round for a visit Sirius was quite prepared to suffer the rest of summer when he returned to Grimmauld tomorrow.</p>
<p>He'd be returning to his mother's shouting, his father's silent disapproval, his brother's scolding and sense of perfection. And Cadence Hearthorn's now purposefully ignoring gaze.</p>
<p>Not that he cared much for the last one. It was more an interesting turn of the events. She'd never paid him mind, no more than he had her. Their only link was his brother, and Sirius hadn't been on good terms with Reg since his brother's sorting solidified the fact that where Sirius was rebellious Regulus was ever the perfect son.</p>
<p>He'd seen her about school, usually at Regulus's side which meant at the side of those who watched the news of Voldemorts rise with more interested than disgusted attention. The most he could say he ever had noted about her was that she seemed the same as most Slytherin girls do, cold and sharp and definitely a bit of a bitch.</p>
<p>Now of course, he felt he'd have to pay at least a modicum of attention when school started up. If only to be sure she didn't share Remus's secret.</p>
<p>He would be lying, just a bit, if he said he wasn't also just a bit curious about her ability.</p>
<p>If she were telling the truth of it. Perhaps she did just read his letters and the whole seer excuse was just that an excuse, a lie.</p>
<p>But, from the way she'd looked while saying it, he doubted she was lying. If she was then she was likely the best liar he'd met.</p>
<p>Nah, he figured she'd seemed adequately sure to state that if he shared her secret of being a seer she'd spill on Remus's situation.</p>
<p>Even if she were lying that was not a thing he'd risk.</p>
<p>He peers over to Remus where he's leaning back on the grass, his eyes shut with the sun down on him. He looks tired, and considering it was only a few days past the full moon it made sense. Some times he'd be run down for a week, or two on the particularly bad ones.</p>
<p>"Rough go of it, Moony?" He asks after tossing another chocolate frog his way to garner his attention. Sirius had learnt quick that if one wanted to cheer Remus one should have chocolate on hand.</p>
<p>Remus takes the frog and nods, a soft hum that said he didn't much want to talk of it. Sirius wonders if he wishes that the rest of them could spend full moons with him over the summer too.</p>
<p>"Got my captain pin," James pipes up to switch the subject.</p>
<p>"Yeah, saw it the second I got here, you charm it to shine like that or does it do that naturally?" Sirius asks, leaning over to poke the thing that James had apparently refused to take off since getting it.</p>
<p>"He probably charmed it," Peter states, a smirk to his face that makes Sirius laugh.</p>
<p>"Gonna show it off to Evans on the train? Maybe that's the one thing you've been missing in getting her to finally say yes." Sirius jokes and James scowls and shoves him over making Sirius laugh harder.</p>
<p>"This is the year," James states, "definitely the year she'll say yes."</p>
<p>"You sound certain about that," Remus remarks, "using those hard earned skills from divination class?"</p>
<p>"Oh definitely," James laughs, "read it in the leaves and everything. Guaranteed O when we take the OWLs."</p>
<p>"Divination is always a guaranteed O," Peter remarks, "don't got to be a seer to know that."</p>
<p>Sirius laughed, but wondered a second as the others delved into talk of OWLs and classes if Cadence was in Divination. It'd make sense for her, more than it did for them. She could actually use the shit they learned there.</p>
<p>He looked over his friends and also thought of how she'd just peeked in at Remus, whether meaning to or not, and thought about how useful that must be. Even if she said it was dangerous like she said, wouldn't the use of it be worth that in some cases.</p>
<p>Merlin, imagine if she was watching right now. They probably wouldn't even know it.</p>
<p>He glances about the Potters lawn before shaking his head at the ridiculous thought. She'd disliked it, seemed as spooked about seeing Remus shift as having had the dream in the first place.</p>
<p>But still, especially with the way things are turning towards war, having a skill like that would be damn useful. And risky, now that he thinks of it, especially with it being in the hands of a girl who hangs about wannabe death eaters.</p>
<p>He frowns, and turns his thoughts and attention instead to the conversation and his friends. Much better things worth his time, especially as it ticks away sending him closer to returning to the hell that awaits back home.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Nuisances</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <strong>Cadence</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>As she stretches up on the tip of her toes a hand reaches over her and grabs down the book she was going for. "Here," the voice belonging to the arm says, handing over the potions book to settle in her arms with the rest of her fourth year required texts.</p>
<p>"Thanks," she remarks shortly, before turning and heading further up into Flourish and Blotts in search of another of her books.</p>
<p>She'd pointedly been ignoring Sirius since the night he woke her. And it had seemed as though that was that, they would go on regarding each other only when Regulus was involved or some other circumstance required it. He'd left for the Potters, and returned and in that time only spared a few curious glances her way that she ignored.</p>
<p>Now it seems that curious glance has bubbled to a curious pestering as he follows her up the steps. Then as she searches the shelf he pulls down another book and holds it her way. "Won't you need this one?"</p>
<p>She glances down to it and frowns, "not funny." Is all she says turning and continuing on.</p>
<p>"Wasn't a joke." He shrugs, though he returns the book to the shelf before trailing behind her, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that he was supposed to be searching out his own books as well.</p>
<p>"I'm not in Divination." She crouches down and carefully pulls out her charms book, and again Sirius's arm reaches over her this time to stop the pile from toppling her way.</p>
<p>"Why not?" He asks, and as she eyes him she realizes he's not asking out of any hidden meaning. He's just plain curious. "Figured it would be a required course for a seer."</p>
<p>She glares forcefully to him, "for one, you're treading the not telling anyone line quite finely by saying that in a crowded shop."</p>
<p>"No one's paying us any mind," he shrugs, barely glancing around to make more in joking than any serious concern.</p>
<p>Cadence shakes her head and frowns, as just because it doesn't seem like anyone is listening doesn't mean they aren't. She doesn't tell him as much, figuring he'll just say she's paranoid. Thus she simply continues on with her point, "Secondly, it's not a well known fact."</p>
<p>"No?" He asks.</p>
<p>"No." She states, "only Regulus knows. I haven't even told my family." She starts back down the steps, more than ready to be out of the shop and if she can help it away from Sirius Black.</p>
<p>"Really?" he asks, genuine interest to his voice. "How'd you get away keeping a secret like that."</p>
<p>"I worked hard to handle it all myself." She steps around a first year who is struggling to keep a pile from collapsing upon them. "And was successful, except it seems when it comes to you two Black brothers." She shakes her head, and more than a little curses her luck in that regard. At least when it comes to Sirius, she doesn't mind Regulus knowing. It was what really cemented their friendship in the first year, him knowing this secret about her.</p>
<p>No, she was fine with Regulus having figured it out. But she would much rather Sirius not know.</p>
<p>"Interesting." Sirius says and Cadence sighs with more than a little frustration.</p>
<p>"Don't you have your own books to find, or at least could you go be a nuisance to someone else?" She steps into the queue and looks over at him.</p>
<p>But he just shrugs, "Kreacher fetches our books, and if I'm here I can avoid robe fittings with mum."</p>
<p>She shakes her head, "well perhaps help Kreacher along so I can be left in peace."</p>
<p>To that Sirius seems to just roll his eyes, though to Cadences relief he does leave her and disappear into the stacks. Whether to search out his books or just find someone else to bother she's unsure.</p>
<p>Either way she's quite happy she's returning home in the evening and will thus not have to deal with Sirius Black for the last bit of summer.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. What Sirius's Pride Demands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>
    <em>Sirius</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>To say Sirius was relieved to see the looming castle of Hogwarts would be a very large understatement.</p>
<p>He was fucking overjoyed.</p>
<p>The last two weeks of summer were as he'd expected them to be.</p>
<p>Absolute Hell.</p>
<p>Thus walking into the Great Hall and seeing the long tables and settling in amongst them amongst his friends was like one big bloody breath after holding it for too long. And settling into the groove of the school year was much more welcoming than stewing in the festering hell of Grimmauld Place during the summer.</p>
<p>He lays across his bed, grinning up at the red and gold curtains of his bed while James laughs over the look on Snivellus's face when his pastry exploded on him during the feast.</p>
<p>"Brilliantly timed, Padfoot." He remarks, and Sirius grins further.</p>
<p>"Shame I wasn't able to get them all to go off." He remarks. "I mean imagine that, whole of Slytherin covered in whipped cream."</p>
<p>"It'd be more than worth starting the year in the negatives for house points." James agrees.</p>
<p>"Some of us want to win the house cup," Remus points out.</p>
<p>"Boo," Sirius and James both call out.</p>
<p>"That's the Prefect in him talking." James adds, tossing a pillow at him which Remus quickly dodges.</p>
<p>"He's got standards to uphold now." Sirius laughs, "no messing about with us."</p>
<p>"It's an honor I'm not about to let McGonagall regret." Is all Remus says in defense.</p>
<p>"Well, with that honor be sure to not forget your best mates, especially when we get caught sneaking about."</p>
<p>"We won't be caught if we get that bloody map working for us." Sirius points out.</p>
<p>"Think we'll get it?" Peter asks, peering over at the parchment they'd started working on the year before. "I mean, it's a complicated sort of task."</p>
<p>"With the four great minds of ours working on it?" James states, "we'll have it done by Christmas."</p>
<p>"I say we'll have it done by Halloween." Sirius muses, thinking a bit on the enchantments and how difficult it will really be.</p>
<p>"That's mental," Remus shakes his head, "we still have loads of research to do, plus mapping the school itself which is hard on its own with how much it likes to move about, then of course the actual enchantments."</p>
<p>"Hey," Sirius sits up, "We became bloody Animagi in a year, and that takes most wizards and witches far bloody longer." He leans forward, "'sides, the enchantments for this will be far better than holding that damned leaf in our mouth for a month."</p>
<p>"I hated that leaf." Peter shivers with disgust at the memory.</p>
<p>"And James and Sirius hated not being able to hear themselves talk a whole month." Remus jokes, earning another two pillows thrown his way by both mentioned boys.</p>
<p>"Thought McGonagall was going to figure us out just by that." James says after a few moments of pillows being thrown about.</p>
<p>"I wouldn't be surprised if she did and just decided she'll put up with it for the sake of not having to hear us speak for a month." Sirius jests, "I wouldn't put that past the old broad." He smiles fondly before falling back up on the bed.</p>
<p>Soon enough the boys have all settled in, and curtains have drawn shut but Sirius still just stares up at the gold and red and relishes further in the feeling of being back at Hogwarts.</p>
<hr/>
<p>He wouldn't say he initially sought out Cadence in any sort of way.</p>
<p>It was more that he seemed naturally more aware of her now than before.</p>
<p>He'd glance up at breakfast and his gaze would have found it's way to her at the Slytherin table where she sits beside Regulus. Or he'd notice her in the halls when they happened to pass by each other.</p>
<p>He just found himself spotting her more.</p>
<p>Though it didn't seem she was spotting him more. More the opposite, it seemed she was purposefully ignoring him even more than she had before summer.</p>
<p>Sirius would be lying if he said that didn't just make him more aware of her again.</p>
<p>He's been bloody thinking about her too.</p>
<p>Mostly while he and the others are sat about in Divination, jokingly making predictions that are believable enough to earn passing marks on their papers but are more for fun than any sort of attempt to decipher their future. But now instead of thinking of clever ways to make up predictions his mind tends to wander towards the only actual seer he knows now.</p>
<p>So, it's only natural ironic chance that he comes across her while making his way through the halls after Divination.</p>
<p>Perhaps it's not entirely chance, as after Divination he found a bit of his curiosity peaked by the subject and its relation to her. Or lack of relation, as he recalls her statement of not being in the class and she hadn't actually answered why she wasn't taking the course.</p>
<p>So call Sirius curious, but when he saw the opportunity to sidle up beside her walking down the halls in the direction of the Dungeons he does exactly that.</p>
<p>"You didn't actually answer why you weren't taking divination." He starts, deciding it's best to just jump into the conversation like it were still that day in Flourish and Blotts.</p>
<p>She glances his way, a look of annoyed exasperation to her eyes before she looks forward. "I did." She dismisses quickly.</p>
<p>"No," he smiles, "you changed the subject to me disregarding the importance of keeping your secret, which I am keeping quite diligently don't you worry, but then in place of a real answer you just said that it wasn't a well known fact as though that's reason enough to not take the class."</p>
<p>"Technically that was in response to the other part of your questioning statement," she responds, "about you figuring it would be a required course for a seer." She steps onto the first moving staircase in her sight quickly, but not quick enough before he is hopping the small gap as it starts to floats away just to stay beside her.</p>
<p>He smirks at the little frown she gets at her failed attempt to shake loose of him.</p>
<p>Leaning leisurely against the railing and looking to her he continues on, "yes, I suppose you have a point there." He aquiesces before tilting his head, "so, beyond it being your biggest secret, why not take it? Even if no one knows of your gift, it could still be useful, no?"</p>
<p>She sighs and looks down to where the staircase is floating. "Taking divination would do me absolutely no good," she steps off the staircase as it lands and though she doesn't wait for him before quickly walking down towards another, less mobile, staircase, she does continue talking so she at least acknowledges that she can't entirely shake him no matter how fast she walks. "The area covered by Professor Phebes is purely based in traditional divination. Reading tea leafs, looking in crystal balls, gazing into the future and reciting prophecies that way." She states it all purely factual, with just the slightest tone of dismissal for it all under the other bit of annoyance. Whether for Sirius or the topic of traditional divination, Sirius wasn't sure.</p>
<p>He'd prefer to think it was the latter and that she wasn't actually as annoyed with him as she liked to make it seem.</p>
<p>"My… abilities are not covered in that class. Nor would learning the skills taught in it benefit me in the slightest." She starts down the staircase, "not that I'd particularly wish for them to. I have no wish to use my natural skills, why would I want additional ones. Plus I'd just run the risk of being found out and that would only hinder my future, not benefit it."</p>
<p>"But even if you have no need for the skills," he counters, "you could at least take it for the reason most others do, for the easy O. Which is perfectly valid enough and would hardly run the risk of being found out if you're doing what all the rest are."</p>
<p>She rolls her eyes just the slightest bit, "why on earth would I wish to take a class purely for the reasoning of it being easy." She glances his way, "I am already taking two electives, Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes. Two courses that I actually wish to study and utilize. And I plan on adding Alchemy or Ancient Studies come 6th year. So, again, why would I waste my time on a class that holds no benefit to me."</p>
<p>"For a break perhaps," Sirius muses, "or because it <em>could</em> be useful to you if you actually used your gift."</p>
<p>"It's hardly a gift," She snaps, "and even if it were one, it's one I plan on ignoring fully and completely until the day I die, which hopefully through this action will be a long while away."</p>
<p>"How could it kill you?" he didn't really care much for divination beyond what was necessary to pass the class, which as he'd stated to Cadence wasn't much, but he still didn't see how gazing into the future could kill someone unless of course you predicted something that someone really did not like.</p>
<p>"I…" she shakes her head, "it doesn't matter, and perhaps it wouldn't kill me in the traditional sense but it would be my end. Hence why it shall be pushed away from me and entirely ignored for my own sake." She stops by the entrance down to the dungeons and turns fully to face him, "sort of like you."</p>
<p>"Well," Sirius crosses his arms and smirks once more, "I have a feeling that me and your gift have something in common that you don't seem to want to acknowledge."</p>
<p>"And what is that?"</p>
<p>"You have no say in it," he remarks with a shrug, "see, your gift is a part of you. And, if the reason that I've learnt of it and that we're interacting at all is evidence, it affects you whether you choose to ignore it or not. It will always be there for you, no matter the potions you take or the classes you avoid."</p>
<p>"And how does that relate to you?"</p>
<p>"Well, again you have no say in what I do." His smirk grows to a full grin as he leans towards her, "you can't stop me from being intrigued by you and your gift, nor can you really ignore me as I'll just keep returning if I choose to do so. Free will of man and all that."</p>
<p>"I could hex you until you leave me alone," she states and he does notice that her wand is indeed in her hand and a part of him wonders when in their conversation she pulled it exactly.</p>
<p>But he doesn't relay any sort of nerves or fear, not that he actually has any for her, instead he just chuckles. "It wouldn't be quite the deterrent you wish it to be." He says, "if anything my focus would turn more fully your way as my pride would demand some revenge."</p>
<p>She studies him a moment before huffing just a moment and instead of hexing him turning away and walking down the steps into the dungeons.</p>
<p>Sirius smirks feeling a bit of pride at success before following her down. "Though I will say, my curiosity still grows." He states leaning close to her, "I mean, it really is a gift regardless of what you think of it. I mean to look in at whatever and wherever you want. Imagine the…"</p>
<p>He doesn't finish speaking as at the bottom of the steps she spins about and with her wand pointed his way and says succinctly "<em>immobulus</em>."</p>
<p>He feels the slightest bit of wounded pride as he freezes awkwardly upon the last step, but still he smiles her way and calls as she turns back around without a blink to continue walking away "remember Cadence, I have free will! This is hardly the deterrent you wish it to be! I will just have to-"</p>
<p>"<em>Silencio</em>," she calls over her shoulder with another point of her wand and he finds his words lose their sound as he tries to shout after her some more.</p>
<p>He frowns, but as she disappears around a corner he smirks once more.</p>
<p>Truly, as he said this only determined him to do one thing from here.</p>
<p>And it wasn't to leave Cadence Hearthorn alone. In fact, it was quite the opposite.</p>
<p>Because as he said, his pride demands some revenge.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading! <br/>This and the next few chapters I had loads of fun writing, so please let me know what you think! I love to hear thoughts on my fics and whether people are liking it, it always makes me happy!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. What Cadence's Pride Requires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <b>
    <em>Cadence</em>
  </b>
</p><p class="p2">Sirius gets his revenge upon her only a few days after she left him frozen at the base of the dungeon stairs.</p><p class="p2">She’ll give him one bit of appreciation for the fact that it wasn’t done in a way that would be clearly targeted upon her. Thus she could excuse it as she was simply one of the few unfortunate souls of Slytherin house to be covered in honey and feathers walking out of the common room.</p><p class="p2">Granted she was the first to walk through when it went off, and certainly hit the worst by the prank. Both facts she doubts are coincidences.</p><p class="p2">A fact Regulus does note upon when she finally makes it down for breakfast after cleaning herself off and drops onto the bench. “I could always write home,” he muses, reaching over and plucking an apparently missed feather from her hair. “Mother would have a howler here faster than the snitch.”</p><p class="p2">“Don’t bother,” she leans forward and grabs some toast, “it was a stupid and childish prank, and I just was unlucky enough to be the first through the door when it went off.”</p><p class="p2">“I wouldn’t put it past my brother to target you because he’s miffed at me for whatever new reason he’s come up with,” Regulus glances back over his shoulder towards the Gryffindor table and Cadence can’t help but turn to follow his gaze to Sirius who’s laughing loudly alongside his friends.</p><p class="p2">Though he does happen to catch her gaze and give a little wave that radiates smugness.</p><p class="p2">“Sometimes it amazes me how we’re related,” Regulus huffs turning back around and pouring some pumpkin juice. “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually a changeling or something. It would explain his incessant need to rebel against everything, especially our family.”</p><p class="p2">She sighs, “don’t pay it any mind, Reg.” She bumps his shoulder just the slightest. “Focus on classes, and quidditch, and the things that make you happy and that you’re brilliant at.” She smiles, “if you pay him any attention he’ll just get worse.”</p><p class="p2">Regulus nods, “still, I’d prefer you not get dragged into his mess.”</p><p class="p2">“I can handle myself just fine,” she waves her toast in dismissal of his worry before taking a bite. Regulus nods and she peers just the slightest bit over her shoulder, “and I will handle it all myself.”</p>
<hr/><p class="p2">It posed an interesting challenge before her.</p><p class="p2">Just as his pride had demanded revenge, hers requires retribution.</p><p class="p2">While on the one hand if she ignored his childish prank and acted as though it didn’t affect her in the slightest —which it really didn’t, aside from the short inconvenience it had caused— it was likely that he’d give up whatever spark of interest had grown her way and soon enough she’d be free of the nuisance that Sirius Black has become to her.</p><p class="p2">But, he would have won in a way. And get rid of the idea of being a bigger person, the bigger person also could become the bigger target if they do nothing.</p><p class="p2">So, again the only path was getting reciprocity. An eye for an eye, never-mind the second half of that sentiment.</p><p class="p2">But she wouldn’t lower herself to childish pranks. Nor was she willing to outwardly play into his game.</p><p class="p2">Because if she were to openly, even if just to the pair of them, get him back then that would only escalate things as he would simply continue to target her in likely more isolating and growing incidents. His curiosity would not fall away as she wishes it to and instead she’d be stuck with the thorn of Sirius Black in her side for far longer than she ever wanted.</p><p class="p2">Thus, she must find a way to make him pay that did not lead back to her directly. That perhaps he would come out the other side of still believing he got the last word and that she simply was ignoring his act of rebellion and soon enough he’d lose interest. But she’ll still have the private satisfaction of having won against him.</p><p class="p2">A thing she could very well live with happily.</p><p class="p2">So, the first step was to observe him, though not in any way that is noted. Just quiet observation of his day to day in search of the most opportune path.</p><p class="p2">It’s near three weeks before she spots it.</p><p class="p2">Out in one of the courtyards while she’s sat with Regulus and some others chatting around her. She had been reading one of her books for ancient runes when she’d noted Sirius and his gang of friends wandering through the courtyard. She didn’t move, or really look up from her book, but she watched as he and the rest of them sat out upon some of the grass and chatted amongst themselves.</p><p class="p2">And then she saw Hallie Jetson, a 5<span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span> year Ravenclaw, go up to Sirius and start speaking with him.</p><p class="p2">Cadence watched, while flipping the page in her book as Sirius flashed a rather brilliant smile up to the girl who laughed and blushed. Cadence watched as Sirius eventually stood, to the jeering of his friends, and went walking off with Hallie.</p><p class="p2">Cadence watched, and smiled just the smallest quirk of her mouth down at her book as a little plan began to form in her mind.</p><p class="p2">It was only a week later that she got it all together and implemented.</p><p class="p2">In that time she collected what she needed to make it all work.</p><p class="p2">First, she worked on enchanting a quill to copy another persons handwriting. Then of course she got herself something with Hallie’s writing upon it. The older girl had taken Ancient Runes the year before and never threw away notes, so it was simple enough to ask to borrow her old notes to supplement Cadence’s own.</p><p class="p2">Then there was the somehow even simpler task of just having the simple note with a time and location dropped in Sirius’s lap.</p><p class="p2">Though, it was both simple and the slightest bit complicated. Because there had to be no way to link the note to her, and thus it was dropped in his lap out in the courtyard while Hallie was walking by and Cadence was nearby but not anywhere that Sirius would see.</p><p class="p2">She watched as he read the note and glanced about, and by chance because Hallie was nearby and clearly smitten thus she smiled when he did.</p><p class="p2">The final part was the where and the result.</p><p class="p2">There is a well known hallway that out of the common good and undiscussed agreement of the student body was left alone by the Prefects during most nightly patrols. Now that didn’t mean it was never patrolled, but typically it was left alone out of some semblance of student solidarity for the sake of those who wanted a spot to meet up after hours for obvious reasons.</p><p class="p2">So it would hardly be risky for Sirius to go to that stretch of hallway after getting a note asking him to meet there after hours.</p><p class="p2">Of course, another well known fact was that Slytherin prefects would hardly ever give up a chance at giving Gryffindors detention.</p><p class="p2">And so, Cadence lets slip to Slytherin prefect Evan Rosier that a very well known, and disliked, Gryffindor would likely be in said usually empty hallway that evening.</p><p class="p2">And then, all Cadence had left to do was wait.</p><p class="p2">When the next day came around, she was quite happy to learn that Sirius Black had been caught alone after hours and received detention for it.</p><p class="p2">And Cadence felt quite content with her retribution, and with the fact that it seemed Sirius was none the wiser to her involvement in it all and his attention was moving away from her with her apparent ignoring of his own actions.</p><p class="p2">For at least for a good two weeks it seemed to have worked perfectly, until he dropped down across from her at her table in the library and smiled wide and wolfish her way.</p><p class="p2">“I’ll give you props,” he states leaning forward onto the table and resting his head in his hands. “I didn’t have a bloody clue at first.”</p>
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